Kitchen Experiments

In between Grammar, Reading, Spelling and Math we worked on several projects/experiments in the kitchen today.  Jared has been wondering what was the difference between butterscotch and caramel, so after a little internet research, we determined that it's the type of sugar used that makes the difference.  Butterscotch is usually made with brown sugar and caramel with white sugar.  In both cases, they are cooked with dairy products such as butter or cream.  In our searching we also discovered that we could make caramel from a can of sweetened condensed milk, in this case it is the lactose in the milk that caramelizes and combines with the dairy to make a perfect caramel.

 The kids just thought this was great because you actually cook it right in the can.  You simmer the can for 2 1/2 hours, making sure the can is always covered in water.

 After the can cools to the touch you open it and voila! Caramel!  Our caramel was very runny, we really needed to have our heat a little higher, but it was still tasty.

 Everyone enjoyed dipping their fruit into the caramel for a nice snack and we decided that it was healthier than caramel made from white sugar.

 

Jared wanted to make caramel candies with the leftover caramel dip so he cooked it on the stove until it started to get thick and then put it on wax paper.  Yummy!

 

Another experiment we've been wanting to try out is the naked egg.  The idea is to put an egg in vinegar and the vinegar will slowly eat away at the egg shell and leave just the egg inside of it's membrane.  This takes about a day, but even a few hours later you can see that the egg is all covered in bubbles and there is a layer of calcium from the eggshell at the top of the vinegar.

Finally, I have been baking and freezing meals for our busy days and the days after the baby comes and have been wanting to make and freeze some bread.  I found a recipe for 1 hour bread and thought I would try it out and compare it to my normal dough recipe to see which one I liked best.  In the end, I made four loaves of yummy wheat bread.  Of course I had to taste both kinds of bread to see which one was better (nothing says heaven like bread right out of the oven with a little homemade peach preserves spread on it.)  In the end, I determined that the 1 hour recipe tasted better.  Sounds like we have a winner and a successful day of homeschooling!

Death, Despair, and Easter Eggs?

For history today the unit was called "The 1300s - The Age of Despair."  Sounds fun huh?  The video introduced such topics as The Black Plague, The Hundred Years War, The Battle of Agincourt, and Joan of Arc.  So, how do you make topics about death and despair interesting for a young audience?  We used Easter Eggs.  We got the idea from the Story of the World Activity book.  We hid eggs filled with a few chocolate chips out in the yard.  Then we talked about the Plague and how it was spread.  As a reminder that it was the fleas on rats that spread the disease, the kids had to go out into the yard to look for "rats" and find all the "fleas" inside and "get rid" of them. 

 Here's the crew with their rats and fleas, they look pretty happy to be in the depths of despair.  Another thing they remembered from this unit was the origin of the song "Ring Around the Rosies" and the fact that "we all fall down" is in reference to the Plague.  We also learned that 1/4 of the people in the country died of the plague, while 1/2 of the people in the village died from disease and 8/10 of the clergy died from exposure while tending to the sick and giving last rights to the dying.  Hey! Did that count as math for the day?

 For lunch we ate currant buns, lenten pea soup (no meat, in honor of lent) and a green salad which we learned people started eating around this time period. 

Here's the crew enjoying their lunch and time spent together. 

On Friday the 24th, we watched Shakespeare's Henry the V and enjoyed learning a little about the reasons for the Hundred Years War and the amazing outcome of the Battle of Agincourt, which we later compared to the Stripling Warriors in the Book of Mormon as in both cases, those who fought on the outnumbered side of the battle were protected by God.

Annual Vulture Fest

Grandma Mattson took the girls to Radford City's Annual Vulture Fest to learn about local birds and their habits.  One of the activities that they did was to make pine cone bird feeders, which is done by spreading shortening on the pine cone and rolling that into birdseed.

 One is outside the dining room window.

 The other is hanging on one of the garden posts.

Amber also made this bird mask at the vulture fest and then made herself some wings to go with it.

Projects and Presentations

 For Clarissa's presentation this month, she decided to compare and contrast the ingredients in play dough and cookie dough.  First, she made up a batch of play dough on the stove, then dyed it three colors.

 Then we looked for a sugar cookie recipe that had similar ingredients to our play dough recipe and she made the cookies in the same three colors with some cookie dough left over. 

 

Finally, she made a poster that compared the ingredients in the two doughs and showed everyone how similar they looked.  She gave everyone the opportunity to taste the two different doughs as all the ingredients in the play dough are edible, but nobody took the challenge.  On the other hand, everyone was happy to sample the yummy cookies.

  

For Krystal's project, she talked about how books were handmade before the printing press was invented and so she handmade an alphabet book.  These are her illustrations for G and H, giraffe and hot dog.

 

 Jared decided to do his project on prosthetics and made a prosthetic arm out of Legos.  Isn't that impressive?  It actually has all the parts and bends and grabs and everything!

 Then, he researched the different types of prosthetics and made a poster to display them.

Amber never wants to be left out of doing a presentation so unbeknownst to me, she drew a picture of several different forest animals and told us all about them.  Great job guys!

The Diaspora

This week for history we are studying the scattering of the Jews and some of the Jewish traditions and celebrations. While listening to the Story of the World chapter on the Diaspora, we made these paper dreidels.

Next the kids played the dreidel game. They really liked it.

After some math, we had a Jewish feast. Matza pizza with an apple raisin sweet sauce, potato latkes, eggs, chicken and matza ball soup, and celery. It was delicious.

Chinese New Year at Radford University

To complete our two week unit on China (which perfectly coincided with the actual Chinese New Year), we took a field trip to Radford University to watch and participate in the New Year festivities.
The Blacksburg Chinese School performed the New Year song. They were so cute.This was a swan dance put on by the Chinese school dancers.
This musical performance was really good. I believe the instrument is called an Erhu.

During intermission, the hosts invited members of the audience to come up and play a game of Ninja. Jared readily volunteered even though he had no idea how the game was played. He did great and almost won, he came in second.Another beautiful dance from the dance group.

A fashion show; all of the women are wearing different verisons of the traditional Chinese cheongsam or qipao dress.
The finale of the show was the lion dance which started out with traditional music and then switched to a more upbeat modern dance, which everyone thought was great.

After the show, the kids participated in several different activities, like Chinese character painting.Trying to tie a Chinese love knot.

A chopsticks contest. Amber won this contest against several college students.
And finally, a bingo game. There were prizes at each table, but the best part? The spring rolls, YUM!

The last day of Chinese New Year is the Lantern Festival, which in China means more fireworks. We had fun watching Lantern Festival fireworks live in China outside of Chris' hotel via Skype on the computer.

Winter P.E.

I have found that the kids behave much better and do better on their schoolwork when they can have at least an hour of exercise each day. In the Spring and Fall that's easy with soccer and just letting them play outside. It's a bit more of a challenge in the winter if the days are too cold, although they do make it outside most days. We have discovered that the new pool in Christiansburg is a nice change from just playing outside. We have been twice and plan to go about once a month. Since Grandma Mattson was here visiting this weekend, she went with us too.

The kids love the waterslide.

We even met some other homeschooled friends there. The nice thing about going while school is in is that we pretty much have the place to ourselves.

Jared brought his friend Keagan along, he's a great substitute for a brother.Clarissa is working on her backstroke.

Word Games and Impromptu Art

Clarissa has been enjoying playing magnetic word games at her tutoring class so her tutor let her bring the magnets home. She sorted all the words by alphabetical order.
While I am reading our readaloud book, the kids work on coloring or art projects. Jared decided to make a perspective drawing of an old western town set into a crystal ball. He worked on it for a few days and it paid off in the end, it was a nice piece of artwork.